Legal Question in Consumer Law in Wisconsin

I purchased a car in March from a small dealership. Title was clean and the CarCheck.com only showed a re-titling of the vehicle to an insurance company. When I started having constant issues with the vehicle, I ran a CarFax report, and it should additional details, and noted that the car was in an accident with "severe damage reported", followed by another damage report noting "total loss vehicle" followed on the same date by the re-titling of the car to the insurance company. Note that the new title was not branded as being a salvage vehicle. My guess is that I don't have any recourse with the dealer, since he received a clean title when he bought the car at auction, and the CarCheck did not note the total loss. But do I have any recourse with the insurance company, whom I believe would have been required to re-title the car with a salvage title (according to Wisconsin law)?


Asked on 8/03/11, 9:51 am

1 Answer from Attorneys

JAY Nixon nixon law offices

An independent Car-Fax title check, which finally exposed the accident history problem after it was too late, would probably have been a good idea for you immediately, once you became seriously interested in the car. The "Car Check" which the dealer obtained may have been little more than a marketing tool to help sell the car and probably did not warrant that it was either accurate or complete. Since the dealer presumably pays for it, they can probably also control its contents. That is why the last thing that you ever want to do is rely on such an investigatory document prepared by somebody who is trying to close a sale. Rather, get one at your own expense from a reputable independent company such as Carfax, and make sure that you, rather than the seller, pay for it. If the insurer indeed violated law when they re-titled and you can prove this, you may have a worthwhile misrepresentation case against them However, from the "severe damage" description you provide, it seems possible that it was something less than a total loss, implying that the duty to brand the title as salvage may not have been triggered. These comments are intended solely for public educational purposes and are not legal advice for you. Instead, you need to consult with your own lawyer before making any decisions on what to do next. Keep in mind that many deadlines in such matters come and go very quickly

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Answered on 8/06/11, 6:25 pm


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